Jack Brabham
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| Formula One World Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australian |
| Active years | 1955 - 1970 |
| Teams | Cooper, Rob Walker Racing Team and Brabham |
| Entries | 128 (126 starts) |
| Championships | 3 (1959, 1960, 1966) |
| Wins | 14 |
| Podiums | 31 |
| Career points | 253 (261)[1] |
| Pole positions | 13 |
| Fastest laps | 12 |
| First entry | 1955 British Grand Prix |
| First win | 1959 Monaco Grand Prix |
| Last win | 1970 South African Grand Prix |
| Last entry | 1970 Mexican Grand Prix |
Sir John Arthur "Jack" Brabham, AO, OBE (born April 2 1926) is an Australian racing driver who was Formula One champion in 1959, 1960 and 1966.
Career
Brabham was born the son of a grocer in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville. He left school at fifteen to work in an auto repair garage.
During World War II, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1946, he opened a small repair business. He also raced midget cars and in his first season won the NSW Championship and formed a partnership with Ron Tauranac.
In 1955, he made his Grand Prix debut at the British Grand Prix driving a Cooper-Bristol. He rejoined the Cooper Car Company team after campaigning his own Maserati 250F in 1956. Having the motor behind the driver - as in the Coopers - has the advantage that the weight is concentrated on the powered rear wheels for more traction. In 1959, Brabham won the World Championship with a Coventry Climax engined Cooper. In 1960, he won the championship again with Cooper.
Brabham took the Championship-winning Cooper to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for a test following the 1960 season, then entered the famous 500-mile race in a modified version of the Formula One car in 1961. The "funny" little car from Europe was mocked by the other teams, but it ran as high as third although ultimately finishing ninth. The Indianapolis establishment gradually realized the writing was on the wall as Brabham and his team principal John Cooper had shown that the days of front-engined roadsters were numbered. Ironically, Cooper was not as competitive this year, as the 1.5 litre engine rules were introduced and the famous Shark Nose Ferrari dominated. Brabham also raced at Indy in 1964, 1969 and 1970.
In 1961, he founded Motor Racing Developments with Ron Tauranac. A newly introduced engine limit in Formula One of 1500 cc did not suit Brabham and he did not win a single race with a 1500 cc car,[2] although his first team win came in 1964 with Dan Gurney. His team suffered poor reliability during this period, attributed by some commentators to Brabham's notorious thrift. Referring to Brabham's unwillingness to spend money, his team mate Gurney said that "Jack was tighter than a bull's ass in fly season".[3] In 1966, a new 3000 cc formula was created, Brabham in a Brabham-Repco won the championship again and became the first driver to win the Formula One World Championship in a car that carried his own name. In 1967, the title went to his teammate Denny Hulme. Following injuries in the 1969 season, Brabham intended to retire.
Finding no top drivers available Brabham decided to race for one more year. He began auspiciously, winning the first race of season, the South African Grand Prix, and then led the third race, the Grand Prix of Monaco until the very last turn of the last lap. Brabham was about to hold off the onrushing Jochen Rindt (the eventual 1970 F1 champion) when his front wheels locked in a skid on the sharp right turn only yards from the finish and he ended up second. After the 13th and final race of the season, the Mexican Grand Prix, Brabham did retire. He had tied Jackie Stewart for fifth in the points standings in the season he drove at the age of 44. Brabham then made a complete break from racing, selling his interest in the team to Ron Tauranac and returning to Australia.
In 1976 Brabham competed at Bathurst in a Holden Torana with Stirling Moss. Although the car was crash-damaged on the starting grid, it was repaired, and luckily - survives as a museumpiece to this day.
Brabham was named Australian Man of the Year in 1966, and the Queen awarded him Order of the British Empire in 1967, and appointed him a Knight Bachelor in 1979.
All three of Brabham's sons - Geoff, Gary and David - are also engaged in racing careers.
He was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.
In 1998, Sir Jack Brabham returned to the old Nürburgring to race a VW New Beetle 1.8T in the 6 Hours VLN with Ross Palmer and Melinda Price, scoring the fastest lap among the 3 drivers with over 134 km/h in average. Brabham said he returned to the Ring for the first time since 1970, and was surprised about the changes in safety - and the sunshine.
Brabham was honoured, along with featured marque Cooper, at the 2006 Monterey Historic Automobile Races.[4]
In January 2008, Brabham was named as an officer in the Order of Australia on Australia Day for services to motorsport.[5]
Business
Before setting up his own race team, Brabham had already established his own car dealership, Jack Brabham Motors, in London. In the early 1960s it also offered engine conversions for Triumph Heralds and BMC MG Midget / Austin-Healey Sprite by transplanting Coventry Climax FWE engines.
Complete F1 World Championship Results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)
- * Indicates shared drive with Mike MacDowel
- † Indicates Formula 2 car
Indy 500 results
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Notes
- ^ a b Up until 1990, not all points scored by a driver contributed to their final World Championship tally (see list of pointscoring systems for more information). Numbers without parentheses are Championship points; numbers in parentheses are total points scored.
- ^ Cooper, Adam (May 1999) "The world according to Jack" Motorsport p. 36 The article quotes Jack as saying "There's no way you could call those 1500-cc machines Formula One."
- ^ Henry (1985) p.51 The quote also appears in Lawrence (1999) p.58
- ^ Sir Jack Brabham, O.B.E. - Press Detail
- ^ ""Brabham Honoured"".
References
- Henry, Alan (1985). Brabham, the Grand Prix Cars. Osprey. ISBN 0-905138-36-8.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - Lawrence, Mike (1999). Brabham+Ralt+Honda: The Ron Tauranac story. Motor Racing Publications. ISBN 1-899870-35-0.
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External links
- Jack Brabham statistics
- Interactive Jack Brabham Statistics - compare Jack with other F1 drivers
- Official Australian website
- Official US website
- Brabham's 1998 Ring race
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- Australian racecar drivers
- Australian Formula One drivers
- Formula One drivers and team owners
- International Motorsports Hall of Fame
- Indy 500 drivers
- People from Sydney
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Knights Bachelor
- 1926 births
- Living people
- Officers of the Order of Australia
- BRDC Gold Star winners
- Monaco Grand Prix winners